Quest for Fairy Enchantment Day 7
Description Welcome to the VFK Legends in History Epic Quest, Day 7! This is the final day of your epic quest for fairy enchantment! Today's quest unearths some of the history behind one of the most interesting stories of recent times, The Cottingley Fairies! Your reward for completing this final stage of the Epic Quest will be 1,000 credits and your seventh Legend Pin, the Fairy Pin! Prizes Questions 1. The main characters in this fascinating story are Elsie Wright, who was born in 1901 and Frances Griffith born in 1907. Frances had gone to live with her cousin Elsie in Cottingley, England. Elsie borrowed her father's camera one Saturday afternoon in July 1917 with the intention of taking a picture of Frances in order to cheer her up. Frances had fallen into the beck earlier and had drenched her clothes, invoking a scolding. Elsie's father developed the photo about 30 minutes later and found a surprising sight. Unusual white shapes developed that he mistook as either birds or sandwich wrappers, however, Elsie set her father straight by telling him they were fairies. What kind of camera was used to take this first picture? * A Huttig 'Gnom' Camera * A Midg quarter-plate * An Eastman Kodak No. 2A Brownie Camera * A No. 2 Citex Camera 2. The second picture was taken in August by Frances. She and Elsie climbed up the side of the beck (stream) to a well established stand of oak trees. The photograph Frances took was under-exposed and somewhat unclear as would be expected of the 10 year old amateur photographer. When Elsie's father developed the photograph, he saw a picture that caused him to believe that his daughter and her cousin were pulling pranks on him and he prohibited them from using his camera. The picture Frances took was of Elsie with a gnome. Go to one of the stands of old oak trees in the kingdom, the dark forest room in Audubon's Wildlife Adventure, and say "Gnomes are awesome!" 3. The following year, on November 9th 1918, only one week before the end of World War I, Frances, now 11, mailed a letter to her friend living in South Africa. This letter has been presented as evidence that Frances really knew and played with fairies because of the casual reference to them. It has been argued that if she were trying to play a prank, that she would have highlighted the reference to the fairies. What is written on the back of this famous letter to her friend Joe (Johanna)? * These are my friends the fairies. Don't you think they are lovely? * Can you believe it? We actually have fairies behind the house in the beck! * Elsie and I are very friendly with the beck Fairies. It is funny I never used to see them in Africa. It must be too hot for them there. * I think that Elsie and I will be taking more pictures of our friends the fairies soon, your friend, Frances. 4. Elsie's parents, Arthur and Polly Wright were determined to expose the faked pictures. They searched high and low for any evidence that the girls had in any way tried to manipulate the pictures. Arthur and Polly looked in the trash for scraps of paper, pictures or cut-outs to prove that they had fabricated the fairies. They didn't find any evidence that the girls had created the pictures. In fact, the two cousins continued to profess that they had actually seen the fairies, had taken the pictures and that the fairies were real. The pictures were seen by friends, but then the odd event ceased to receive attention. Go to the U.S. Marshall's office and say "That's our story, Marshall!" 5. The fairy pictures first received public attention in the summer of 1919. Interestingly enough, it was Elsie's Mother Polly who aroused attention in the pictures again when she attended a meeting of the Theosophical Society in Bradford. While listening to the lecture on "fairy life," Polly told the person sitting next to her in the room that her daughter and niece had taken pictures of fairies. This discussion spurred interest in the "rough prints", which they came to be called, and they eventually were brought to the attention of Edward Gardner, a leading Theosophist. What is a Theosophist? * A person who exposes hoaxes. * A Person who holds a certain philosophy and proclaims themselves to be a "lover of truth". * An expert photographer. * A fairy expert. * A publicist 6. Gardner directed that new negatives should be made from the "positives" of the original pictures. He asked that the new negatives should be as good as possible without tampering with "the evidence." Two top flight photographers produced new negatives without altering the source pictures in any way. The new negatives were more clear and sharp and didn't reveal any hidden flaws that should have showed up on a sharper negative. Go to The Victorian Store Front and say: "I want to buy some more film for my camera!" 7. The famous author and creator of Sherlock Holmes, who was also an ardent Spiritualist, had been asked to pen an article on fairies for the Christmas issue of Strand Magazine. He was expecting it to be published in November of 1920 when he heard of the photos. He arranged to contact Gardner and also to borrow the photos. Who is this famous author? * Sir Arthur Conan Doyle * James J. Audubon * C.S. Lewis * Elizabeth Browning 8. The prints were brought to photographic experts, and no evidence of fakery could be found. One expert in particular, Snelling, about whom it was said that "What Snelling doesn't know about faked photography isn't worth knowing," told Gardner in a report on the rough prints that he could detect movement in all the fairy figures. He definitively proclaimed them not to be fakes. The photos were also examined by Kodak, who stated that an "experienced photographer may have been involved", which many took to be the result of the Kodak experts examining the sharpened pictures. Even though they did not find any evidence to support a hoax, they would not commit to proclaiming the photos genuine. Go to the last room of the Sydney Opera House in Australia and say "What Snelling doesn't know about faked photography isn't worth knowing!" 9. During vacation days in August of 1920, Frances was invited to return to Cottingley because Gardner was bringing a new camera for each of the girls when he came up from London. He was hoping that with the new cameras they would provide further photographic evidence that fairies existed. In his own words, Gardner told of his plan: "I went off, too, to Cottingley again, taking the two cameras and plates from London, and met the family and explained to the two girls the simple working of the cameras, giving one each to keep. The cameras were loaded, and my final advice was that they need go up to the glen only on fine days as they had been accustomed to do before and tice the fairies, as they called their way of attracting them, and see what they could get." Did the girls take any more pictures on Aug. 19, 1920 and how many did they get? * Yes, the girls took two more pictures of fairies. * No, the girls did not take any new pictures of the fairies. The fairies were on to them. * Yes, every picture the girls took had a fairy in it * Yes, the girls took one more picture of a fairy 10. A couple of days later, the girls took more pictures on Saturday afternoon and captured one more on film. "They went up again on Saturday afternoon and took several photos but there was only one with anything on and it's a queer one, we can't make it out. Elsie put the plates in this time and Arthur developed them next day." Go to the outside of Merlin's Magic Shop and say, "She did not take any flying after all." 11. In September of 1976, Austin Mitchell interviewed the adult Frances for Yorkshire Television. In the part of the interview where he asked about the photographs, the following was asked: Mitchell: Did you, in any way, fabricate those photographs? What was Frances's answer? * Frances: Of course not. You tell us how she could do it, remember she was 16 and I was 10. So, then, as a child of 10, can you go through life and keep a secret? * Frances: Yes, it was a simple childhood prank, we didn't think it would go so far. * Frances: No, we would never have done that. * Frances: Yes, we thought it would be fun. 12. In a later interview for the magazine "The Unexplained," The cousins admitted that they had faked the photographs by holding up cut-outs with hatpins. Frances however, until her death in July, 1986 (Elsie died in April, 1988) relayed that the cousins did see fairies and that the fifth photograph, showing fairies in a sunbath, was real. Some people believe that any confessions they gave in later life was done to protect the fairies after they were gone. The experts said that it is nearly impossible to hide the edges of a cutout and that it would show up distinctly. It has been said that you can't see a fairy unless you believe in them. Go to the zoo room in Australia and say "I believe in fairies!" Answers 1. A Midg quarter-plate 2. Go to the Dark Forest room in Audubon's Wildlife Adventure, and say "Gnomes are awesome!" 3. Elsie and I are very friendly with the beck Fairies. It is funny I never used to see them in Africa. It must be too hot for them there. 4. Go to the U.S. Marshalls office and say "That's our story, Marshall!" 5. A Person who holds a certain philosophy and proclaims themselves to be a "lover of truth". 6. Go to The Victorian Main Street and say: "I want to buy some more film for my camera!" 7. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 8. Go to the Sydney Opera House Side in Australia and say "What Snelling doesn't know about faked photography isn't worth knowing!" 9. Yes, the girls took two more pictures of fairies. 10.Go to Merlin's Square and say, "She did not take any flying after all." 11. Frances: Of course not. You tell us how she could do it, remember she was 16 and I was 10. So, then, as a child of 10, can you go through life and keep a secret? 12. Go to The Zoo room in Australia and say "I believe in fairies!" Category:Quests Category:Epic Quests